Feature Request: Better keyboard shortcuts for scrolling/navigating

• Apr 28, 2019 - 23:49

There doesn't appear to be a keyboard option for scrolling one page at a time. One is limited to dragging the score or the cursor frame on the navigator which either requires the touchpad or a mouse, which is not ideal for accessibility but is not as efficient for quick scrolling as a keyboard shortcut. Currently the page up and page down doesn't display the rest of page outside the window, as it does in most document readers (pdf or epub), but instead skips to the next one. I suggest Musescore follow the industry standard for navigating documents (e.g., Adobe Reader) with page up and down and display the rest of page not being displayed before moving onto the next page.


Comments

That's indeed a basic feature that's incredibly still missing.
I have requested it years ago...
Knowing also that MuseScore is open source, before complaining too much I know I could rather make a PR.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Agree that when you use horizontal scrolling the desired behaviour is open to discussion and that keeping the current behaviour would not be a bad decision.
But when you use vertical scrolling, necessity to move one height of what is in view (vs a full page) by keyboard is not debatable at all.
Note that nothing would prevent to propose the two actions "move a full page" (=the current one) / "move a 'viewed' height"
People would be free to associate PgDn/Up to one pair, and e.g., ctrl+PgDn/Up to the other one.
Only remaining debate would then be what is the default, and that is less important than the ability to choose.

In reply to by frfancha

No there is still more to it than that. For one thing, if you're trying to move through a score quicjkly, sometimes you may want a key that literally do move page by page. For another, what to do if the width of page doesn't fit in view? Move horizontally until you're done with one system, then vertically to get the next, back and forth and back and forth? Or have the command only show you the first few measures of each system?

To me, page means page, if you want an alternate meaning with vertical scrolling, that's what Single Page view is for.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

<<
For another, what to do if the width of page doesn't fit in view? Move horizontally until you're done with one system, then vertically to get the next, back and forth and back and forth? Or have the command only show you the first few measures of each system?
>>
--assuming we are speaking of vertical stacking mode--
I have never, but really never seen any piece of software which would move view horizontally using PgUp/PdDn.
Changing MuseScore to do that would add a surprising and unexpected behaviour .
I don't even start to understand how you can discuss the obvious behaviour expected by everybody, PgUp & PdDn must move one height of view at a time any all normal programs do. That's all.

In reply to by frfancha

I agree moving back and forth is a bad idea, I was just pointing out it seemed like the natural extensopn of the rationale you seemed to be espousing. The point being, it just can't be expected that pgdn will not sometimes skip content. Once one accepts that, then it becomes recant to talK. about consistency of which content gets skipped. Not saying I oppose the inconsistency between horizontal and vertical, but it does seem a valid consideration to weigh.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

For me the issue is this: there does not seem to be any way at all to scroll vertically using the keyboard in either "Page View" or "Continuous View." (Am I missing something?)

"Single Page" is great, but there are plenty of cases where I want to work in one of the other Views and still be able to scroll vertically using the keyboard. e.g. To work on layout, it is often necessary to be in Page View. To work on large scores (which could just be small scores zoomed in to 200+%), vertical scrolling is indispensable.

In reply to by kacattac

Scrolling is done with the mouse wheel (or equivalent touch gesture - eg, most computers have two-finger swipe set up as scroll wheel). Do that alone for vertical, with Shift for horizontal.

There isn't a keyboard only way to scroll, whether horizontally or vertically. Making the PgUp/PgDn do something like a vertical scroll is what is being discussed here. Still doesn't address the horizontal aspect.
Generally, instead of thinking in terms of scrolling, these types of workflows are better served by thinking in terms of moving the cursor, and the score will follow automatically. But no doubt, something like Alt+cursor to scroll could be nice some day.

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